Nepal
Communist Party: Madhav
Kumar Nepal, who headed one of the three factions within NCP earlier, is now
being seen as a valuable prize for the Oli and Dahal camps, who are both vying
to win Nepal’s favor in the recent weeks. Oli’s aides are reported to have
geared up their activities with Nepal and his coterie.[1]

Nepali
Congress: In an
interview, NC leader Ram Chandra Poudel, who has been critical of Sher Bahadur
Deuba’s style of leadership and functioning, pointed out at the ‘feudal
culture’ in National politics. He also accused Deuba of being ‘concerned
about consolidating his power in the party through wrong means.[2]

Parliamentary Affairs: After the expiry of Manohar Prasad
Bhattarai’s 5-year tenure on March 15, Gopalnath Yogi was appointed the
executive general secretary of the federal parliament.[3][4]
National Assembly Chair Ganesh Timilsina, an Oli appointee, criticized Speaker
Sapkota’s unilateral move to appoint Yogi as the general secretary of the
federal parliament. He expressed his displeasure at Sapkota for not consulting
him before the appointment.[5]

The ruling
NCP’s desire to appoint deputy speaker as a “part of a larger deal”
with the Rashtriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N), RJP’s unwillingness to
accommodate NCP’s interests, and speaker Sapkota’s reluctance has left the
federal parliament without a deputy speaker for more than a month and a half.[6]

Despite rule
10 of the Lower House Regulations, which encourages citizens’ participation in
the lawmaking process, there is hardly any constructive discussion on the bills
in the house.[7]
Further, owing to the government’s recent
activities to hijack the independence of the country’s lawmaking body, experts
claim that the House of Representatives has increasingly been overshadowed by
the executive, functioning more like an extension of the government rather than
a principal actor in the separation of power.[8]

Historically, however, the parliament has always functioned
as a tool of the ruling governing party rather than a platform to discuss
policy-related issues, constitute laws, formulate policy, and direct and guide
the government.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Pillar at Nepal-India border vandalized: Nepali
Congress leaders and cadres pulled down a Nepal-India border pillar on March 14
which they claimed was built on Nepal territory. The pillar was installed at
Baibaha in ward no. 3 of Beldandi rural municipality recently by a joint
Nepal-India survey team. Border dispute in the southern part of the district
has been creating difficulties for the survey team to work.[9]

Kalapani dispute: Nepal government has planned to
establish a base camp at Kalapani, a disputed Nepal-India border area. Armed
Police Force is forming a camp with ‘Level A’ hospital. This camp will be
inaccessible by roads. The APF initiated the work after a Cabinet meeting on
December 9, 2019, approved the proposal to register the land in the name of APF
for installing a Border Observation Post (BPO). The government has already
allocated Rs 10 million, and an additional Rs 120 million will be allocated
soon.[10]

New Indian Ambassador meets Army Chief: Indian
Ambassador to Nepal Vinay Mohan Kwatra paid a courtesy call on Chief of Army
Staff (CoAS) Purna Chandra Thapa on March 17.The meeting was held at
the army headquarters.According to the Directorate, matters relating to
bilateral relations and areas of mutual interests were discussed during the
meeting.[11]

China extends a helping hand: China
has assured Nepal of necessary support or aid to fight the probability of
coronavirus being spread in Nepal. In a letter written to the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, the Chinese Embassy has asked Nepal for any required support
including aid, medical team, masks or other medical supply from China.
Likewise, the letter also states that China is eager to send tourists to Nepal
once the country is free from coronavirus. It has also guaranteed to expedite
the infrastructure development projects in Nepal that have been affected due to
the pandemic.[12]

SECURITY AND STRATEGIC AFFAIRS – COVID—19

SAARC on the fight: On March 13, Indian PM Narendra Modi invited all SAARC nations to devise a plan to deal with the global pandemic COVID-19. Representatives of all nations attended the video conference. Modi also proposed an establishment of an emergency fund and offered USD 10 million which can be withdrawn by any country. Meanwhile, PM Oli expressed his willingness to jointly deal with the situation and stated that Nepal is at a high alert for a possible outbreak. He stressed the urgency of the situation by overlooking all medical arrangements by himself.[13]

Chinese workers quarantined: Seventy-one Chinese workers employed in the construction
of Pokhara Regional International Airport have been placed in quarantine. The
Chinese workers had returned to Nepal between March 4 and 6 from after
celebrating the Chinese New Year and have been kept in isolation at the project
site. None of them have shown any effects of the pandemic.[14]

Chances and protective measures in Nepal: Nepal detected its
first coronavirus patient around two months ago, who has since recovered. So
far 445 people suspected to have COVID-19 have tested negative. Despite these
preventive measures, the possibility of the virus entering the country cannot
be ruled out. And even if only a few cases are detected, the number of infected
people can multiply rapidly within a few days as seen in Iran, Italy, and South
Korea.[15]

However, as
the World Health Organization labelled COVID-19 as a pandemic, the government
made public its strategy to prevent and control the disease, such as to stop
flights from the most affected countries, not issuing tourist visas, and lockdown
pocket areas, and seal borders. These measures would be taken if the virus
spreads in the country, without mentioning a clear-cut implementation timeline.
Experts criticized the government for not taking stringent measures and just
announcing plans and asked to act as soon as possible.[16]

Suspect
flees: A suspected
coronavirus patient from Siraha, who was sent to Janaki Medical College
Teaching Hospital, for further tests, escaped from the hospital on March 15. This
clearly shows the inadequacy from the government side to contain people who are
suspected carriers of the coronavirus. If this lackadaisical attitude
continues, it could lead to a widespread proliferation of the pandemic all over
the country in a few days.

Government
to open fair price shops: The
government plans to open a string of fair price shops in a bid to stop black
marketing and price gouging for daily essential goods following rush buying due
to the COVID-19 outbreak. The stores will be run by state-owned Food Management
and Trading Company and Salt Trading Corporation in Kathmandu Valley. Officials
are yet to decide when, where, and how many shops will be opened.[17]

GOVERNANCE AND CORRUPTION

Governance
Concerns: A week since Oli went into surgery, governance and politics have all but
come to a halt. Oli did not even bother to name an officiating prime minister,
leaving no one in charge of state affairs while he recovers. The last Cabinet
meeting that Oli chaired was on March 1, a day before he was admitted to the
Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. He underwent a kidney transplant
surgery on March 4. There
has been no Cabinet meeting since then.[18]

Freedom
of expression: The constitution and
existing laws guarantee freedom of speech and press freedom, but the government
has tried to restrict media freedom by threatening journalists and news organizations
that criticized the authorities, said the Annual Country Report on Human Rights
Practices-2020, which was recently released by the US Department of State.[19]

Although Rule 10 of the Lower House regulations envisions that people’s feedback could be necessary
before parliamentary endorsement of the bills, Nepal’s political parties treat
citizens only as their vote base, showing little accountability to them.
Despite a well-placed provision, Nepali political parties in 2015 rushed to
promulgate the constitution without collecting feedback from the members of the
public. Now the trend of ignoring public
participation in lawmaking continues.[20]

Transitional justice:
A bill to amend the
controversial Enforced Disappeared Enquiry and the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission Act, 2014, is ready to be tabled in Parliament. Subash Nembang,
deputy parliamentary party leader of the Nepal Communist Party, remarked that the
amendment has been made considering the spirit of the relevant Supreme Court
ruling, international practices, and feedback from conflict victims. Nembang
confirmed that the bill will be tabled in a week.[21]

Winter session likely to end without endorsing crucial bills: The ongoing session
of federal parliament, also dubbed the bill session, looks like it might be the
most unproductive one. With just about two weeks remaining for the prorogation
of the current session, dozens of bills, including some crucial ones, are likely to
remain pending. As of now, only two bills—the bill to amend the Revenue Leakage
Act and the Industrial Enterprise Development Bill—have been endorsed. The next meeting has been called for
March 20 and the house with meager chances of 10 meetings to be held will not
have adequate time to endorse all the pending bills before the session ends.[22]

GENDER
VIOLENCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Acid Attack:
Police arrested a
29-year-old woman on the charge of attacking her husband with acid in
Tarkeshwor Municipality, Kathmandu. The survivor is getting treatment at Tribhuwan
University Teaching Hospital.[23]

Gender
Stereotype: Nepal
Nursing Council introduced a 15% reservation for men to study nursing as it is
taken as a feminine occupation. The Council is trying to break the gender
stereotypes, but there were only 59 men out of 4049 students in 2019. The data
of registered nurses also shows a greater gender gap in the profession: out of
13,465 registered nurses, only 125 are male.[24]

Human
Rights: The country
report on human rights practices published by the US State Department states
that the Nepal government has not been taking action against the cases of human
rights violations. The report highlighted the extrajudicial killing of Biplab cadre
Kumar Poudel and Madhesi activist Ram Manohar Yadav. It also highlights the discriminatory
citizenship law for women, increasing violence against women, and the transitional
justice process and government failure to address these cases.[25]

PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

Name and Capital: Kul Prasad KC,
Province Minister of Internal Affairs and Law, said the capital city would be
decided through votes and may take some months. The province government has
been facing criticism for the delay in
finalizing capital city and province name. As per the constitutional provision
the decision to designate the capital and name of the province has to be passed
through the two-third majority of the assembly.[26]

Meanwhile, the Provincial Assembly of Province 2 failed
to decide the name and capital through votes on March 17. The ruling parties—Samajbadi
Party Nepal (SPN) and Rashtriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N)—proposed Madhes,
Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Janaki, and Congress Mithila-Bhojpura Pradesh as capital
names. Of the total 107
members of the provincial assembly, 37 MPs voted for Janaki, 28 MPs for
Mithila-Bhojpura, 42 MPs for Madhya-Madhes and 60 MPs for Madhesh.[27] However,
the majority of the Members of Parliament (MPs)’s agreed that Janakpur should be the capital of the
province.[28]

On March 12, Province 5 government forwarded the
amendment on provincial services bill for providing facilities to the local
representatives. The government proposed that by adding expenditure headings there
would be the possibility to provide more facilities than what is currently
there.[29] However, earlier on
October 18, 2019, the Supreme Court had repealed the laws of provincial
governments enacted to allow salaries for elected representatives at the local
level.

Province Heads in Capital: The heads of all
provinces visited the federal capital Kathmandu with a bundle of grievances. They
complained of a lack of clear acts, rules, and procedures for them to deliver
their responsibilities. Governors also complained that their offices in the
province had a shortage of resources. The province head also took the
opportunity to share experiences. However, they could not meet the President
and the Prime Minister. [30]

Budget Issues: The Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperative spent the highest 48.83% of the capital budget. However, the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forests and Environment, Office of Chief Minister and Council of Minister, and Provincial Planning Commission managed to spend the lowest 6.29%, 6.81%, and 7% of the capital budget respectively.